


Carry On

by AdorableDoom



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Bloodline
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Gen, Past Violence, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 13:36:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6807040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdorableDoom/pseuds/AdorableDoom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It isn't where we come from, it's what we do that matters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carry On

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray and potential spoilers for Star Wars: Rogue One.

      Mon Mothma died in her sleep less than a day after Leia ends her final term as a Senator. She never gave a moments thought to running for reelection and she doubted anyone else did either. They probably would've laughed her off the floor at the mere suggestion. Not that she had any desire to run. The Senate was irrevocably broken, she could see that now. The cracks had always been there but she'd realized too late just how truly deep they ran.  
      So Leia had gone home, fixed herself a large tumbler of Corellian brandy and had gone to bed. Greer had woken her up just after dawn, her face tear streaked and devastated. She pulled herself together just long enough to give Leia the news before breaking down completely. Numb, Leia had simply pulled the girl she thought of as a daughter into her arms and simply held her there, unable to offer any words of comfort. She thought suddenly of Mon Mothma's last communication to her not long after the fallout over her true parentage had come to light, she thought of how pale the other woman had looked and knew in her heart that she'd most likely never return to the Senate.  
    She'd held the factions together for so long, kept the Senate she'd worked so hard to restore from dissolving into a mess of pointless political infighting and corruption. And now she was gone. "This is really the end isn't it?" Greer whispered into her shoulder. Leia said nothing and simply held Greer tighter.

      Chandrila was beautiful. That was Leia's first thought as the Mirrorbright began its descent. A bright blue world covered in lush forests. Mon Mothma had spoken often and fondly of her home world in the many years that Leia had known her. Longer, she realized, than she'd even known her husband.  
      "The Silver Sea is exquisite," Mon Mothma often told her during the war when they were homesick and sorrowful. "When all this is over, you'll have to come see it for yourself." "Someday," Leia had promised, hoping she sounded more optimistic than she felt. Someday. The early afternoon sun shone brightly on the calm sea, water glistening like molten silver.  
Mon Mothma was right, it was truly exquisite. And her friend wasn't here to share with her. Someday had come too late.

    Although the Senate had declared a full standard week of mourning for Mon Mothma, the actual memorial would be a rather simple affair with only close friends and family. According to Korr only a few Senators had been invited at all. And the ones who'd been left out were not happy. "They think she's being unreasonable," Korr reported when Leia had spoken to her just before she had departed, "they think all her colleagues should've been invited not just a handful." Leia had barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. They wanted to make Mon Mothma's death a spectacle, to use it as platform to campaign rather than to mourn the loss for their colleague and friend.  
     It was no wonder her wife had stopped the circus before it had begun. Leia pushed the anger aside. It wasn't about them today. It was about her friend.

     Mon Mothma's home was modest but elegant much, Leia thought, like the woman herself had been. Leia made her way through the small crowd gathered in the sitting room. Han and Chewie should be joining them in a few hours and Lando was already en route. There's so few of us left, Leia realized with a jolt. Those members of the Alliance who had survived the war were not as young as they once were.  
    Leia had never felt her age more than she had these last few months. For most of her life Leia had fought so that her own children wouldn't have to but now it looked as if that fight was far from over. "Princess Leia?" Leia turned and found herself face to face with a young woman with familiar auburn hair and dark eyes. For a moment she almost didn't recognize her before a memory of a little girl playing with a model star cruiser on the ornate rug of Mon Mothma's office flashed suddenly in her mind's eye.  
    "Lieda," Leia said, taking the girl's hands in hers and squeezing lightly. "I'm so sorry." It seemed a meaningless platitude given she had just lost her mother but Leia also knew there were no words to make that pain hurt any less. Lieda tried and failed miserably to smile, gripping Leia's hands almost desperately. "It was peaceful," she said after a moment though it sounded as if she were a hair's breath from crying, "that's something, isn't it?" Leia said nothing but gripped her hands all the tighter.  
    There were, after all, worse ways to die. Mon Mothma had been the only Senator to openly defy Palpatine, was the only person in the Rebel Alliance with a higher price on her head than even Luke himself. For her to die peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her family, the woman she loved and the children she cherished was nothing short of miraculous. None of which would be any comfort to Lieda. "She was the best of us," Leia said finally and Lieda managed a wan smile, "if you ever need anything don't hesitate to ask."  
    Lieda's smile seemed a little stronger though her eyes had begun to water dangerously. She was only a little older than Ben Leia realized suddenly, had just started flying with the Republic navy Leia recalled. In that moment, Leia would've given anything to have her son there so that she could hold him in her arms and never let him go. In a perfect imitation of her mother, Lieda held her composer and thanked Leia graciously. "My mother has been asking for you," she said, her voice steady albeit watery, "she wanted you to come see her when you arrived."  
     Leia stared at Lieda in surprise for a moment before nodding and letting the younger woman link their arms together and lead her through the house towards the backdoor. Lieda was nearly a full head taller than her now. Together, they stepped out onto the back deck covered in lush potted plants and overlooking the calm sea. Two black clad figures sat side by side on the edge of the deck. The taller of the two looked up at the sound of their footsteps, face drawn and pale.  
      Little Jobin, Leia realized with a start, the little boy with the perpetually skinned knees and wide grin Ben had loved to chase through the hanging gardens of the Senate. He'd just graduated from the Academy on Coruscant or maybe it was Corellia, Leia couldn't recalled and felt a sharp stab of guilt at the realization. He stood, towering over Leia although in that moment he looked very much like a lost little boy even as he took one of Leia's hands in both of his. "Senator Organa, thank you for coming," he said more than a little tearfully. "Our mother . . . " Jobin trailed off, the words broken by a sharp sob.  
     Lieda pulled her brother into her arms and hugged him tight, giving Leia a faint, sad smile over his shoulder. "We'll give you a moment," Lieda said, wrapping an arm around Jobin's shoulders and guiding him back towards the house. And leaving the two woman alone on the deck. For several long moments, neither of them spoke, each nursing their grief in silence broken only the soft waves. "The first time I saw her I thought she was a queen. She seemed too beautiful to be just a Senator," the other woman said finally though she had yet to look at Leia.  
     Leia smiled softly. "An easy mistake to make," she said because there had always something regal about Mon Mothma, something grand and elegant even in the midst of a war. "I'm so sorry for you loss, I can't imagine what you must be going through." Leia wasn't naive enough to think that she and Han would live forever but the idea of losing him. . . . "Sit with me," she said, patting the smooth wood beside her and Leia obliged. Leia had only met Jyn a handful of times over the years although it's very likely she would not be sitting here right now if it wasn't for the woman beside her.  
     Jyn Erso.  
     Rogue One.  
     The sole survivor of the squadron who had stolen the plans for the original Death Star. Leia remembered vividly the first time she met Jyn, battered and bloody wearing a stole TIE fighter pilot's uniform. Brave and defiant even though she could barely stand. She was wearing black again today and was still beautifully defiant even all these years later. "Thank you for coming, it would've meant a lot to her," Jyn said after a moment.  
     "She cared very much for you." Although Leia had known that empirically, the soft words still made her eyes burn with tears. "She . . ." Leia broke off, forcing her tears back before she could continue, "she meant a lot to me too. More than I can say." Leia hadn't asked, would never get the chance to ask now, how long Mon Mothma had known the truth about her parentage. And yet to know it hadn't mattered to her, that she had never looked at Leia any differently or judged her because of it meant more than she could say.  
     And now, she realized sadly, she'd never get the chance to tell her how much that truly meant to her. "I heard about your retirement," Jyn said after Leia had composed herself. "I never cared much for politics but I can't imagine how they'll manage without you, Tai-Lin, and Mon Mothma." Leia nodded, regarding the sea with a dark expression. She doubted they'd mange very long at all before they were at war once more.  
    "It's broken," Leia said finally, "everything we worked for, everything we died for and its falling apart right from under their feet and they don't even see it. I tried to tell them but no one is ever going to listen to me again." No matter how desperately she wanted them too. She'd hoped Ransolm and others like him, others brave enough to stand up against what was wrong even when everyone else was telling them it was right, could undo the damage that was being done but now. . . Leia pushed the thought away, eyes burning as the anger washed over her. "I saw him," Jyn said, giving Leia a sideways glance, "Vader."  
     Leia winced involuntarily. She, like everyone else, had heard the stories about what happened during the mission to steal the Death Star plans. Stories that over the years had taken on mythic and nightmarish proportions. Stories about Darth Vader and his infamous Death Troopers. Stories about her father.  
     "He was like something out of a nightmare, some monster you tell children about." Even all these years later, Leia could still feel that iron hand on her shoulder, holding her in place and making sure her eyes were fixed on the destruction of the only home she had ever known. Although it was that snake Tarkin who had ordered the destruction of Alderaan it was Vader who had made sure it cut her as deep as possible. Luke had told her he hadn't even known the two of them had survived much less that Leia was his daughter but the thought brought her little comfort. After all, he'd known Luke was his son when he chopped off his hand.  
     Would it have mattered if he had known? It was one of the many things she'd never know. Jyn turned slightly so that they were facing. Her face older now but no less beautiful. The fire in her eyes still burning brightly even after all these years.  
    "You're not him," Jyn said simply, "you had a choice. Your brother had a choice. I had a choice. We're not our parents." Galen Erso. The architect of the Death Star. A loyal servant of the Empire until he had realized the death and destruction he was going to cause the galaxy. And so he had enlisted the help of his only child to help undo what he had done.  
     He'd died for it so that his daughter, so that all of them might have a chance. Was that one moment enough for redemption? Leia wondered. Luke had said often enough over the years that it was, that their father had in fact clawed his way back to light after decades in the darkness. Leia believed him, truly she did but more often than not she had wondered. "It doesn't matter where we come from," Jyn went on, "it's what we do that matters. So I ask you, what are you going to do now?"  
      In spite of herself, in spite of everything, Leia couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. One that Jyn returned. Leia reached out and laced their fingers together. "What I do best," she said simply.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Can I ship two characters based on a teaser that's less than three minutes long? Yes, yes I can. Join me in rare pair hell! The mention of Jyn's father being one of the main forces behind the creation of the first Death Star is based on a rumor I heard not long after the first information about the anthology film was released. Same with the name. Lieda and Jobin were the names of Mon Mothma's children from the old EU now the Legends canon


End file.
